Southeast Asia Information Port (www.dnyxxg.com) – The Liberal Party and the National Party of Australia announced on the 8th that they had reformed their opposition coalition. This coalition had previously split due to disagreements over hate crime legislation.
At a joint press conference in Canberra, Liberal Party leader Susan Leigh stated that the coalition had resolved its differences and improved its mechanisms. “The coalition is reunited, and we will focus on the future, not the past.”
National Party leader Littleproud stated that although the situation had looked dire at one point, both parties had the courage to reunite and pledged that such incidents would not happen again. He said the coalition was “stronger together” and blamed the split on the Labor government’s hasty push for hate crime legislation following the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.
In January of this year, three National Party MPs defied the collective stance of the Shadow Cabinet, voted against the hate crime legislation, and resigned from the Shadow Cabinet. Subsequently, the National Party decided that the remaining eight Shadow Cabinet members would resign to demonstrate unity and announced its withdrawal from the opposition coalition.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), under a reunification agreement reached on March 8th, the coalition will operate under a new framework to prevent either party from unilaterally overturning decisions made by the shadow cabinet. Shadow cabinet members who lost their positions during the split will be reinstated on March 1st.
The Liberal and National parties have long cooperated to form a right-wing coalition, with their main rival being the center-left Labor Party. This is the second time the coalition has split and reorganized since the 2025 federal election. (End)
